I got to the Racefest just as it opened. It was held at Irwindale Speedway this year. As I walked around the vendor booths, I heard over the loud speaker that they were going to have a drawing for prizes, of which one was to drive a racecar around Irwindale Speedway. I filled out the form and dropped it in the box. As I walked around some more, I heard my name over the loud speaker as they were calling the names of 10 winners to drive the racecar, solo without an instructor. They broke the 10 of us into 2 groups of 5. They gave us a quick course on how to drive around Irwindale. Then we got dressed in a firesuit, gloves, neck brace, gloves, helmet and a listen-only radio earpiece. It was a great feeling to be crawling in through the window to get into the car. Once strapped in, I could barely move around. THe next biggest rush was firing up the engine with the toggle switches. We got to drive aournd the track in single file at race speed, although you don't build up much speed since it is such a small track. I'll never forget my first driving experience.
